The yen rocketed to its highest level in more than a year on Thursday and continued rising against the dollar and other key currencies on Friday as investors rushed to take risk off the table, reports the FT. Analysts said plunging stock markets had pushed investors to cut back aggressively on carry trades, in which low-yielding currencies such as the yen are sold to finance the purchase of riskier, higher-yielding assets. By 1.30pm Friday in Tokyo, the yen reached Y112 against the dollar, up from Y114.20 in New York on Thursday and Y118.40 a week ago, for its biggest weekly gain against the dollar in nine years, says Bloomberg.

This entry was posted by Gwen Robinson on Friday, August 17th, 2007 at 5:52 and is filed under Capital markets. Edit this entry.